Guy Code Decoded: Why Men Send Obscene Emails

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When seemingly charming SnapChat CEO Evan Spiegel was outed last month as the kind of guy who uses the frat listerv signoff, "fuckbitchesgetleid," it left us scratching our heads. Sure, we were all kind of basic in college, but for anyone who's ever peeked at her boyfriend's group chats (not that we're condoning that sort of behavior!) it's clear that crude semantics endure well after the jungle juice dries. But why do grown men regress in their emails? And why all the bold-faced misogyny? To get to the bottom of bro-to-bro (B2B) language once and for all—thanks for the valiant effort, Murray—we called on David Covucci, an editor at the online man cave also known as BroBible.com. We'll let him take it from here:

B2B speak is so prevalent because the majority of males think talking that way is perfectly acceptable, even required, among male friends. And unfortunately, it was ingrained in us at a young age. We heard it from our sports coaches, guys born in the '50s who, for many of us, were the first adult men we truly admired. We heard it from people in the grades above us, when we were striving to be like them. So, we used it ourselves, attempting to be more masculine and grown up than we really were. That was always the goal. One way we went about it was by demeaning women.

Is that any sort of justification for the behavior? In an insular circle, of course it is. That doesn't mean it's right. You see, we are cognizant of the world around us. We see the way people are reacting to frat boy CEOs and slut-shaming conservatives. But, like a teenager siphoning off some of his parents' booze, the thrill sometimes outweighs the risk. Plus, it doesn't mean what you think it does. Seriously. If you dig a little further, you'll see that all of the bravado is just macho camouflage for some deep-seated issues.

See my annotated version of one of Spiegel's B2B missives titled, "Because no one reads my list emails anyways," below:

"Sorry for all the emails. Thanks everyone for this weekend. We gave it our all. Our pledge class is currently impressing everyone, ourselves included. The enthusiasm for it is palpable. That's because we love each other. Celebrate that, embrace that. Because you earned it. Looking forward to a good time this weekend."

See how innocent that is? And yet, I know if I have a child, he or she will never hear me use these words. I also know my male friends feel the same way. We have no desire to perpetuate or promulgate this awfulness, but we're lazy and prefer it to slowly peter out. But please, fight us at every turn. We're idiots. After all, we're men.